1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus and a deformable medium container that can be installed in the image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Related-art image forming apparatuses are known to form an image with powder toner (hereinafter, simply “toner”) which is a powder-type medium for image formation. For example, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses develop an electrostatic latent image into a visible toner image by using a developing unit. The image forming apparatuses include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and multi-functional machines having a combination of these capabilities. Direct recording-type image forming apparatuses form an image by spraying liquid toner in dot shape from a toner jetting unit onto a recording medium and so forth. These image forming apparatuses include a medium supplying unit from which fresh toner is supplied to a developing unit and the toner jetting unit.
The new toner is contained in a medium container. Medium containers formed using a deformable material as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-198703 (JP-2004-198703-A1) are now increasingly used.
It is advantageous to form the medium container with deformable material because deformable material that includes a resin sheet material, such as nylon resin, or a paper sheet material, is light-weight and easy to fold, and therefore is easy to collect, transport, and recycle after use. However, such a medium container formed of deformable material has less rigidity and is difficult to set in an image forming apparatus properly. In particular, the very flexibility of material hinders the medium container from setting a medium supply opening thereof to a predetermined position in the toner supplying unit and to a correct position capable of transporting toner properly.
Further, it is also difficult to increase the size of the medium container for storing more toner therein. Generally, an image forming apparatus is assembled by a large number of units and components extending horizontally and its layout is designed accordingly. Assuming that the medium container is disposed vertically, it should avoid interference with these units and components. As a result, it may be unavoidable to dispose the medium container projecting outward from the body of the image forming apparatus, which is undesirable.
In addition, if a flexible medium container needs to supply toner to a developing unit provided in the image forming apparatus, it is not preferable that the flexible medium container includes a rigid member such as a toner transport screw. If it does, it is likely that the rigid member can cause damage to the flexible medium container by breaking through the walls of the flexible medium container and/or can be bulky when folding the flexible medium container.
One approach is to use the weight of toner itself so that the toner can fall due to gravity to the developing unit. However, placing the flexible medium container in any plane other than the horizontal can adversely affect the entire layout of the image forming apparatus.